About the Role
Mission Managers collaborate directly with US and Allied Government customers to strategize and execute mission-critical AI solutions. xAI is expanding its government footprint to bring frontier AI (Grok family models, APIs, agentic tools) to federal civilian agencies, state/local governments, and public sector partners. You'll support new business proposals from requirements validation through solution design, prototyping, development, and rollout. As part of a team of Applied engineers, AI Researchers, and fellow Mission Managers, you'll connect disparate data points into a clear map of customer challenges—and align them with xAI products or collaborate with engineers to build new ones.
Top candidates bring a technical foundation, analytical mindset, and strong problem-solving curiosity. They exhibit user empathy and a hands-on approach to deliver results for customers.
In this role, you'll tackle problems demanding curiosity, analytical thinking, product intuition, and deep user empathy to empower customers.
A typical day may include:
Leading problem discovery and product scoping for key customers, often on-site. Meeting customers on-site to deploy xAI models/products in their environments or integrate their software with xAI's cloud, alongside engineers.
Identifying pain points, scoping specs, and building LLM-powered software for government use cases
Optimizing model performance via prompt tuning or fine-tuning for secure, scalable deployment, and working with SMEs at the customer to improve this process
Analyzing logs, prompts, or outputs to ensure system reliability and effectiveness
Responsibilities
- Proven experience partnering with U.S. federal civilian agencies, state/local governments, or public sector organizations on technology, data, or AI initiatives
- Strong ability to bridge mission/business needs with technical solutions—turning vague problems into scoped, actionable engineering requirements
- Background in software engineering, machine learning, data science, or related fields (e.g., Computer Science, Physics, Public Policy with technical depth)
- Hands-on familiarity with AI/LLMs (prompt engineering, fine-tuning, evaluation, or deployment) or building/scaling software for enterprise/government use
- Excellent communication: explain complex AI concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, domain experts) while collaborating effectively with engineers
- Comfort navigating bureaucratic environments, building relationships, and driving projects to measurable outcomes
- Programming/scripting proficiency (e.g., Python, SQL) for prototyping, data analysis, debugging, or lightweight tooling
Required Qualifications
- Prior work in civic tech, public-interest technology, or federal programs.
- Experience with responsible AI practices (bias evaluation, explainability, red-teaming) in regulated contexts
- Familiarity with federal civilian standards (e.g., FedRAMP considerations, accessibility, privacy frameworks like NIST for non-classified systems)
- Skills in creating user guides, training materials, or demos for diverse audiences
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Juniper, Cisco, and Arista hardware.
- Familiarity with AWS, GCP, and OCI cloud environments.
- Expertise in capacity planning for large networks with minimal customer input.
- Proven success in on-call rotations and incident response in high-stakes environments.
- Strong problem-solving skills and adaptability in a fast-paced, ambiguous setting.
Interview Process
After submitting your application, the team reviews your CV and statement of exceptional work. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 15 minute interview (“phone interview”) during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the initial phone interview, you will enter the main process, which consists of 1 project deep dive, 1 technical Demonstration, and 1 Final Exec Round.
- Hiring Manager Call
- Project deep-dive: Present and answer questions about exceptional work that you’ve done.
- Technical Demonstration
- Executive Round
Our goal is to finish the main process within one-two weeks. Final interviews will be conducted in person.
Annual Salary Range
$180,000 - $440,000 USD
Benefits
Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at xAI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.
